Panel-type electronic display devices typically require a rigid circuit board mounted control circuit. For example, the liquid crystal displays found in laptop computers typically have several integrated circuits mounted on circuit boards, the circuit boards arranged around the liquid crystal portion of the panel. As panels of increasing size and resolution are developed, panels tend to require larger and heavier circuit boards in the manufacture of the display.
Such printed circuit boards are expensive to manufacture and present the additional cost and complexity of physical and electrical interfacing with other display components. The added manufacturing steps required to connect the electrical conductors on the display medium portion of a display, e.g. the liquid crystal portion, with the electrical conductors on a circuit board also lead to yield loss.
It would be desirable, for many applications, to have thin, flexible displays, though liquid crystal media are not well suited to use with flexible substrates. Combined use of flexible substrates and lower cost conductor printing methods holds the potential of lower cost displays for a variety of uses, such as: rolled displays; affordable large area displays; displays incorporated into fabrics; and as a paper substitute. Unfortunately, the cost of circuit boards and the mating of circuit boards to substrates are two impediments to realization of the advantages of flexible displays.